The technology of the present disclosure relates to an optical scanning device and an image forming apparatus including the same.
An image forming apparatus employing an electrophotographic system such as a copy machine and a printer includes an optical scanning device that emits light for forming an electrostatic latent image on a photoreceptor.
The optical scanning device has a housing that receives a polygon mirror, an image forming lens and the like. The housing is formed with light emitting ports from which light is emitted. The light emitting port includes an opening extending in a predetermined direction. The light emitting port is closed by a transparent cover such as a dustproof glass.
When dirt, dust and the like due to toner and the like are attached to the surface of the dustproof glass, there is a problem that the optical characteristics of the optical scanning device are deteriorated and thus image failure may occur. In this regard, there has been proposed a cleaning mechanism that regularly cleans the surface of the dustproof glass.
The cleaning mechanism has a screw shaft extending in the same direction as the extension direction of the dustproof glass, and a holding member that holds a cleaning member by engaging with the screw shaft.
The holding member has a cylindrical nut part fitted to the screw shaft, and an arm part that extends from the cylindrical nut part in a direction crossing the screw shaft and holds the cleaning member. The cylindrical nut part is provided on the inner peripheral surface thereof with a spiral protrusion portion (an engagement portion) that engages with a groove formed on the outer peripheral surface of the screw shaft. The groove part of the outer peripheral surface of the screw shaft and the protrusion portion of the inner peripheral surface of the cylindrical nut part engage with each other and the screw shaft is rotated, so that the holding member moves along the screw shaft. The holding member reciprocally moves along a predetermined movement path when a motor is rotated forward and backward. The cleaning member wipes out foreign matters on the surface of the transparent cover according to the movement of the holding member, thereby collecting the foreign matters.